Tye urges fans to help team secure home T20 quarter final
25 July 2016
Andrew Tye is urging Gloucestershire’s supporters to help secure a home quarter final in the NatWest T20 Blast by getting behind the team in their last group match.
Glos currently top the South Group and have confirmed a place in the last eight but need one more win to be certain of hosting it at the Brightside Ground.
The fast bowler says strong home support in Bristol for the match v Middlesex on Friday July 29 could be the crucial factor in getting them over the line.
He said: “We’ve qualified for the quarter finals which is a great first step but we don’t want to lose any momentum.
“It would be unbelievable to get a big crowd down to support the lads and help us make sure that the fans have one more T20 game to go to at the Brightside this season.”
Click here to book your tickets for the Middlesex match
Tye has enjoyed an impressive campaign so far, spearheading the Gloucestershire attack and picking up 15 wickets at 22.67.
The Australian international has confirmed he is available for the rest of the competition and hopes to add the Blast trophy to the Big Bash League (BBL) he won with the Perth Scorchers in 2014/15.
Another man with BBL titles to his name is Tye’s Gloucestershire and Scorchers team mate Michael Klinger.
The club’s white ball captain has been in imperious form across all formats but has been particularly prolific in the T20 Blast.
He is currently the competition’s leading runscorer with 517 at 57 and tops the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s (PCA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) list – a feat he also achieved last season.
Andrew said: “He just keeps it simple, knows his own game well and plays good cricket shots. He doesn’t try to whack it out of the ground or try any of the funky shots to early in his innings – he just proves that a simple plan can be successful in T20.
“Having said that he played some great reverse shots on Sunday (against Essex). You never see him practice them but he has the skills to pull them out and execute them when he needs to.”
Klinger finished on 95 not out in the 30 run T20 win over Essex at Cheltenham – sharing in an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 127 with Ian Cockbain.
Cockbain’s 69 not out off 35 balls cemented his position as the second highest scorer in this year’s T20 competition with 457 at 65.
Andrew said the righthander was one of a number of his team mates who England selectors should be keeping an eye on.
He said: “Coey’s been playing really well. The way he’s striking the ball at the moment takes pressure off the man at the other end and the batsmen to come because he scores so quickly.”
Tye has also been impressed with the performances of fellow bowlers Matt Taylor and Benny Howell, who is currently the joint-highest wicket-taker in the competition.
He said: “Benny has been able to bowl well even when there have been short boundaries on one side. He takes the pace off and makes the batsmen create something. He is very consistent and forces players to play in a different way.
“Matty Taylor has been quality this year. He has to bowl at the toughest times in T20 – at the start and at the death when batters are really looking to go hard at you. For him to have had the figures he has is a big part of why we are where we are.”
